Editing Thunder Warriors (section)

== Arik Taranis ==

The first badass granddaddy of all Space Marines and Thunder Warriors who would make Guilliman and Dante envious for his existence. He was known to win lots and lots of battles for the Emperor, survive dozens of suicidal fights in which countless Thunder Warriors (who are stronger than space marines) would die, especially the last battle in which he barely made it to victory with his comrade. The Emperor, knowing the Thunder Warrior's limited lifespan would not serve any good for his [[Great Crusade|future conquest]], decided to abandon the Thunder Warriors by arranging an utter betrayal with Arik that would make Horus look like a saint. [[Grimdark|As a result, Arik was forced witness the killing pretty much all his surviving comrades while according to the record, it would be reported that Arik and the Thunder Warriors had been honorably slain during the last battle]]. Despite the betrayal, Arik had no sense of hatred towards the Emperor, for he knew that Thunder Warriors would only serve as an impediment to their [[Space Marines|future cousins]] and he understood the stakes of the Great Crusade.

Anyway, Arik would later hide among Terra's population with his large, obvious body and become the Kingpin of Terra. He started out in the Petitioner's City of the Imperial Palace as the leader of some pissant gang named Dhakal, gang raping his way up the food chain with his only remaining Thunder Warrior buddy, Ghota (who, as described in <i>The Outcast Dead</i>, is an overgrown, cantankerous motherfucker with eyes like the rage zombies from <i>28 Days Later</i>, apparently a side effect of the Thunder Warriors' painful physical degradation) and at least thirty other survivors, until he was effectively the big cheese of gangsters. Calling himself Babu Dhakal (or at least everyone else called him that... the man was crazy, but he wasn't crazy enough to address himself in the third person), Arik expanded his control until it encompassed [[Drugs]], bitches, gambling, weapons, and even toilets--the absolute madman! He would go on to control criminals and heretics alike, causing the Adeptus Arbites to rage quit because they couldn't handle Arik's near swaglord level reputation and rampant (to the point of being fucking psycho) badassery.

He somehow got lucky and found a secret and surprisingly advance lab with all the necessary equipment buried within Terra which is about as common as finding a functional buried starship on a post-apocalyptic Terra. Meaning it probably wasn't an accident at all. This, coupled with the scientific knowledge he somehow got from the Emperor (which it is not explained whether Emperor "shared" it, Arik being a badass and learned it from just watching, or [[just as planned| the Emperor directly taught him in order prepare for some kind of backup plan]].) would help him to genetically modify and increase his life span (but not really enough to keep him alive -- until the Horus Heresy came around).

=== The Outcast Dead incident ===
When heresy first became a thing that happened in the Imperium, Arik managed to get a functioning Progenoid Gland from one of the outcast dead space marines (it's unclear which one, but they probably didn't mind too much--being outcast and dead and all). He was able to extract at least some of the information he needed to replicate the gland, and was then able to plant a functioning copy he had created within his own body, as well as Ghota's. Since GW never expanded their storyline, we can assume that either they have successfully outlived the Emperor and become more raidy, pillagey, and space piratey than the Dark Eldar, or that the result of all their careful work was that they up and turned into uber powerful heroes of the Imperium or straight up killed by either stealthy [[Custodes]] or the [[Assassinorum]]... we have no idea. They may have just settled down on Terra. However, since the Siege of Terra is getting its own series, it is possible for them to show up again.

=== Arik Taranis Facts ===
Despite being outdated and retired, Arik has demonstrated some epic Primarch-level shits:

*He knocked down the "Azurite Tower" during the Unification Wars, as well as earning tons of fucking countless titles.
*He survived the Battle of Mount Ararat, a final yet deadly battle that nearly wiped out his army, meaning he gets shit done even if it almost killed him.
*His Thunder Warrior subordinate Ghota can fight 5 elite Astartes to a stalemate even killing one of them, yet Ghota bows to Arik. Although that doesn't mean Arik is physically stronger than Ghota, is just Ghota having more loyalty to his master.
*Arik has the Emperor's knowledge on gene-seed which the Emperor somehow allows. If Arik were still be alive today, he could probably be the greatest Apothecary in the Imperium, next to The Emperor and Eldar goddess [[Isha]] (and [[Fabius Bile|Apothecary Fabius]] if he hadn't turned [[heresy|bad]]).
*Atharva, one of the outcast dead and a powerful Thousand Sons psyker observed Arik and commented that he has an: "aura too bright to look upon. His presence had a gravity all it's own, demanding all attention and fear." and he "could barely stand to turn his psychic senses on him for fear of being overwhelmed.". Keep in mind only the Emperor and the Primarchs has that kind of aura, yet Arik, a Thunder Warrior has that kind of aura surrounding him. This also raised an interesting theory about him being the test subject of the Primarch project, where the Emperor imbued part of his soul onto a living being using somekind of forgotten psychic technique.
*He is named after [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taranis Taranis], the Celtic god of... [[Just as Planned|thunder]]. So yeah, the guy is literally a god-tier (thunder) warrior. Interestingly, this actually could be evidence of his fandom's pseudo-Primarch/proto-Primarch (the physical prototype as opposed to [[The Angel]] being the soul prototype) view of him. Because being a Thunder Warrior named after a god of thunder has some...implications.